Beauty and the Beast

I had been meaning to take Regan to see Beauty and the Beast all summer and then this was the last weekend and it snuck up on us, so we went tonight, and I was vastly unprepared. I read online about all the do's and don'ts and I packed our blanket to sit on and a little lunch box with some water and snacks, and headed down to Zilker Park about 45 minutes early.

Well, first issue is parking. How is it that no one in this town can figure out how to park in an open field parking lot? There were people blocking paths, exits, parked sideways, it was crazy. I was just glad I was in David's car cause I would have been tempted to run some people down in my truck.

Then we see the hillside is already completely packed with people, exhibit A:


We have a hard time finding a place to put our blanket because NO ONE else read the rules that clearly said DON'T BRING LAWN CHAIRS or if you do, put them at the TOP of the hill. So we end up towards the side which wasn't too bad. We mark our spot with our blanket and lunch box and head to the bathroom and to get the highlight of the evening, snow cones!! Exhibit B:


So we come back with our snow cones to find our spot horrible encroached upon by two guys who look like they could really care less about Beauty and the Beast, AND they were in lawn chairs, but at least they were behind us. Unfortunately, the Smokers Convention decided to come see the play and stand 2 feet away from our blanket. Okay, once the play starts, it should be fine, right? Our seats weren't too bad, we could at least see most of the stage. Exhibit C:


And then after about an hour in, the family in front of us leaves, and you guessed it, lawn chair boys LEAP into position right smack dab in front of us. I couldn't believe it. At that point, Regan was as done as I was and she just looked at me and said, "Can we just go home now?" So we struggled for a bit, scooting to one side of the blanket when the guy would lean one way, then scooting to the other side when he decided to have a conversation with his buddy.

Then the walk back to the car, and trying to find a way out of the maze they called a parking lot. Literally, people parked in the exits, like, they didn't think people might leave early?? It was so frustrating. And Regan was probably pretty tired, she was asleep even before we passed the Austin skyline.